With 33rd Homicide, Stockton Streets More Deadly Than Chicago’s

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STOCKTON (CBS13) – As the city of Stockton gets set to enter the record books as the largest U.S. city to declare bankruptcy, it is also dealing with an escalating homicide rate that outpaces even the deadly streets of Chicago.

A body found in a Stockton park Thursday morning is being investigated as the city’s 33rd homicide of the year, a nearly 100 percent increase over last year when there were only 17 homicides in the city at this time.

Chicago has been compared to a war zone as it deals with a rash of homicides. In 2012 so far, 240 people have been killed in the Windy City, outnumbering the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan this year.

According to CBS News, Chicago’s per capita homicide rate is four times that of New York City and twice that of Los Angeles.

But when you compare Stockton to Chicago based on population, Stockton has more murders per capita. Stockton has one murder per 8,839 residents while Chicago has one per 11,231 citizens.

Many of the homicides in both cities have been blamed on gangs, something the Stockton Police department is trying to battle.

In May, the police department teamed up with the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office to form the San Joaquin Multi-Agency Gang Task Force to combat gang violence.